It’s June and that means my insurance premium on my car is due. I personally have a squeaky clean driving record with no tickets or accidents in over 12 years behind the wheel. Over that time, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a decrease in my premiums. I decided it was time to do a little research and look at other car insurance companies. It doesn’t hurt to at least see if I can get a better deal and save even more money each month.

I was very happy with my current auto insurance, no complaints. But then again, I never had to really deal with my agent other than when my car was totaled by a hail storm back in 2007. Fortunately, that process went smoothly without any issues. This weekend, I set out on looking out at various, popular auto insurance providers with online quotes.

I currently have State Farm Insurance and pay a $348 six month premium on a 2007 Toyota Camry. I settled on a $500 deductible, a middle of the road deductible that saved me some cash. I have emergency road side assistance and rental reimbursement. My car insurance premium also includes full coverage of both insured and uninsured motorists including bodily and property damage liability and medical payments. A very run of the mill auto insurance coverage.

I ran through the insurance quote wizards online following the criteria of my current auto insurance policy and the results were as follows:

Geico – $204
Progressive – $376
ESurance – $296
Nationwide – $265
Allstate – $349

It was very tricky to get an accurate idea of what the premiums contained for each of the auto insurance providers. Some had other offerings, but I did my best to get as close as I could to my current auto insurance policy. I can see advantages of others if you start to add other insurance coverage such as life and home owner’s insurance (and other autos), but for the best apples to apples comparison, Geico prevailed.

geico-geckoSo that is what I did, I made the move to Geico along with my wife’s car. I guess we can officially say that we saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico. I really liked State Farm in general and liked having that personal connection of an agent to deal with. For now, we’re OK with dealing with Geico as we haven’t really set our roots to where we expect to live. At some point, we wouldn’t hesitate to pay a little more to have access to a personal insurance agent that is looking out for us, like State Farm. This is most likely why Geico was significantly lower; we cut out the agent.

Here are some additional tips to consider when switching auto insurance companies:

  • Don’t let your current policy expire until you have a policy you want as a lapse in coverage will lead to higher premiums
  • Look at side by side comparisons of 3-5 auto insurance companies
  • Rates decrease after age 25, so that is good time to investigate another provider
  • Avoid changing insurance providers if you have had an accident in the last 3 years or traffic violation in the last 5 years as it could lead to higher rates
  • Change your insurance before you plan on moving as rates could increase depending on the region you are moving to
  • Don’t forget to cancel your previous policy as it could be reported as a failed payment and appear on your credit report if you fail to notify your agent
  • Drive safe and avoid aggressive driving habits

It doesn’t hurt to shop for a discount, especially if you are a good driver as Geico offered a $55 good driver discount. In the end, we’re saving almost $25 per month by just switching a single car policy, another step towards becoming a millionaire. Saving a little money here and there is going to be great for us, especially since we are just starting our lives together. We’ll see how the Geico experiment goes, but with our safe driving habits, we’re not overly concerned.

Have you ever switched auto insurance companies? Is the grass greener on the other side (aside from the money savings)?

Stupidly Yours,

Matt

Matt

Matt

StupidCents was founded by Matt in 2009. His thoughts are shaped by his family and career and seasoned by his endless motivation to succeed personally, professionally, and financially.